Basic Foundation for Homemade Dog Food

I follow a basic guideline when I’m cooking Maggie and Orbit’s dog food. The core components are as follows:

80% Lean Protein. This can be chicken, beef, pork, lamb, white fish and turkey. I have a professional food grinder at home so I grind their meat. Typically get 90% lean 10% fat or if you must increase the fat go no less than the 85/15 ratio. Too much fat can lead to obesity and other health problems for the dog. You can also use cooked eggs as a protein.a

10% organ meat (this would be the excreting organs such as liver and kidney)

10% vegetable. Dogs cannot process raw vegetable so you can either put them in the food processor or lightly saute them.

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Other notes:

Heart and gizzards are considered protein not organ meat

I don’t add any grains and legumes

For vegetables I typically focus on cooling vegetables. If I’m pureeing them it will be half a cucumber plus whatever vegetable I have on hand (broccoli, brussels, bok choy, squash, and chard are my go to’s)

I give them a raw meaty bone (beef rib twice a week)

Fish is given every 3rd or 4th meal. I focus on oily fish sardines, mackerel, and salmon. Always remove the bone.

Starchy vegetables and grains should be no more than ½ of the non protein portion of the recipe. Preferably use more non starchy vs starchy.

Dairy is ok. You can give them yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, kefir

I also add sauerkraut once or twice a week. I started off giving 1/2 a teaspoon and now they are up to a full teaspoon. I don’t know how to make it. I currently buy the organic kind from Costco.

BASE MIXES

A very easy option would be to buy the base mixes from Honest Kitchen or Grandma Lucy’s and all you have to do is add your protein. They are already balanced and take the calculations off your hands as to what to add and how much to add. Sojos also makes a good one that although is labeled for raw feeders – is also good for DIY Home Cookers.

MUST ADD:

Calcium: If you are not providing raw meaty bones, then you must add calcium. I save my eggshells, bake them at 35 degrees for 5 minute and then grind them in a food processor. The girls get 1/4 teaspoon per meal. Or when I don’t make it – Animal Essentials makes a calcium powder (via Amazon) and this version meets the phosphorus to calcium ratio.

Omega oils: I used to add Omega oil but now I prefer to feed them their fish via sardines from Costco (lowest sodium count I found) or cooking oily fish that I purchase from the local Asian market (I debone after cooking it) and they get fish every 3rd or 4th meal. You can also purchase them from Amazon which is easier since Costco doesn’t always have the type stored in water.

OPTIONAL but highly recommended supplements

Multivitamins – Currently there is a Green Vitamin I add made by Animal Essentials (via Amazon)

HOT FOODS (AVOID)

In Conclusion

Feeding my dogs a home cooked diet takes me less than an hour each time I prepare a batch. The cost isn’t too expensive but the health benefits far outweigh what extra amount I might spend.

Disclaimer:

I am not a vet. I am a pet parent that has made a personal choice to feed my dogs either raw or homemade food. Please do your own research and discuss your choices with your vet to ensure they support your decision.

Lien

MaggieLovesOrbit

Great question. I am going to start to give raw beef ribs every other day. Maybe just one rib. And then also calcium in sardines, mackerel and smelt. Also I heard chia seeds and green tripe can be used.

MaggieLovesOrbit

Jen

I’ve been making Sora food on and off since we returned from traveling. We had a nice supply of chicken coming in from a co-worker of my mom’s who used one every week for something she would make. I was giving her salmon oil at home, but now that we’re in Spain, with an abundance of sardines, I’m thinking of making the switch. I’m curious to know what you consider “low salt?” I saw a pack with 1g of salt, which seemed pretty low to me, but I don’t know much about what the levels should be.

MaggieLovesOrbit

Wowza ship some of that over. I went to Whole Foods and Sprouts and Trader Joe’s and then Costco and the lowest I have found is 110g. Maybe I need to go to an international store that has sardines from Spain. The Asian store has over 400mg for their brands.